Dr. Barry Bittman, the lead author of a study that found a program of Recreational Music-making helped reduce stress and employee turnover for workers in the long-term care industry, was a guest on CNN Headline News on Tuesday, March 9.

The study, supported by Yamaha and published in the Fall/Winter 2003 issue of Advances in Mind-Body Medicine, found that the stress-reducing properties of active music making had the potential to save the long-term care industry almost a billion and a half dollars a year, and might help other high-stress occupations as well.

Barry Bittman, M.D. (seated at piano) sits in with a group of employees for a music-making session at Wesbury United Methodist Retirement Community in Meadville, PA. Bittman led a study that found a specific protocol of group music-making sharply reduced employee burnout and turnover at the facility.

"Stress in the workplace is so prevalent that today more than 70 percent of people are considering changing their jobs when the economy picks up," Dr. Bittman told CNN's Kat Carney. "When you give people an opportunity to express themselves in ways that they've never had before, through music, which is really an innate part of all of us, it breaks down the boundaries and establishes opportunities for communication that go far beyond the spoken word."

Dr. Bittman is CEO and medical director of the Mind-Body Wellness Center in Meadville, PA. To learn more about this groundbreaking scientific study on the value of Recreational Music-making, visit the center at www.mind-body.org.